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“We’re very sad about what’s happening, but at the same time we’re really overwhelmed by all of the positive energy from people coming our way who want to do something,” Ecosia founder Christian Kroll said.
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The company said the spike has come through word of mouth via social media and media reports. Ecosia has also gotten 100 million searches a week, which the company says is a “huge increase,” though it isn’t saying by how much. Since the fires began, Ecosia has seen downloads of the apps and extensions spike 10-fold, to about 250,000 a day, much for it from the U.S., Brazil, Latin America, Canada and Europe.
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Ecosia also has an app for iPhones, iPads and Android devices.
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It works with such nonprofit groups as The Nature Conservancy and the Eden Reforestation Projects.Īlthough it’s possible to use Ecosia from a standard web browser, people can download an “extension” tool to make it the default search engine on traditional personal computers. Ecosia’s bigger goal is to combat climate change. “We tend to do things that are easy.”Ī nonprofit called B Lab has certified Ecosia as a for-profit company with a social mission. “Generally speaking, doing something is better than doing nothing,” said Art Markman, professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas. He said charitable organizations can capitalize on that by making it easy to give money. While switching to Ecosia requires little effort and “might make a difference,” the best way to respond is to give directly to a charity that specializes in a cause and spends donations wisely, said Larry Chiagouris, a professor of marketing at Pace University.Īrt Markman, professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas, said disaster relief tends to be reactive and driven by the news cycle. Download the Ecosia app today to plant trees as you search it’s completely free Ad blocker and fast browsing The Ecosia app is based on Chromium and gives you an intuitive, fast and secure browsing experience with everything you need, including tabs, incognito mode, bookmarks, downloads and a built-in ad blocker.
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Leonardo DiCaprio’s foundation has pledged $5 million.Ĭan a typical person help the rainforest by simply changing search engines or supporting certain companies? Apple, for example, has pledged aid, though it has not given many details. Other companies and even celebrities are also taking action in response to the fires. The company estimates it can plant one tree for every 45 searches that people do.
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But instead of rewarding mostly shareholders, the company said it is contributing 80% of its profits to tree-planting efforts and keeping just a small amount for itself. Ecosia uses Microsoft Bing’s search engine technology and sells ads just like many other tech companies.
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